Noise is the first problem people notice - he recommends handing Nerf balls or foam bricks to bean people making too much noise. If people put on headphones to avoid the noise, some of the advantage of co-location is lost.

Some people will need to take short breaks outside of the team area.

Core hours, like: 9:00 - 3:00 (with a break for lunch), help ensure that the team is working together for most of the day, but still have a opportunity to do other things.

Robin Grosset said that when the transition happens, developers mustn't lose floor/desk space when compared to their traditional cubicles, otherwise they will feel it's just a management ploy to squeeze more people into less space.

Initially there was very strong resistance from quite a few engineers - they felt they were giving up their privacy and "comfort zone". So we let them organize their desks with the open space, and found they ended up at the periphery, all facing away from each other (corner positions preferred to side positions). ...as pair programming began to creep through the teams, we found the engineers spending more and more time sitting beside each other, which made the actual location of their desks fairly irrelevant. My one strong piece of advice: give the engineers LOTS of time to make this adjustment - it's a big one for many of them, and impossible for some.

When I team co-locates I don't expect people who work from home to change their habits. Their role on the team might evolve over time if only because of the isolation.

In addition he is mentions the security concern with information radiators. Frankly I'm baffled if they're a security concern you would never be allowed to have them in the first place (sad) team room or not.

When I team co-locates I don't expect people who work from home to change their habits. Their role on the team might evolve over time if only because of the isolation.

I love working from home, mainly because the traffic during the commute consists only of a dog, cat, my wife and kids. They tend to be more predictable than most drivers. ;)

In addition he is mentions the security concern with information radiators. Frankly I'm baffled if they're a security concern you would never be allowed to have them in the first place (sad) team room or not.

I don't buy this, at least on it's face. To quote Brian Marick, "an example would be good about now". I worry that for the < 1% of the time that this actually applies, the other > 99% of projects would use it as an excuse not to be open and honest about their progress.

Co-location is so valuable - it outweighs the risks
by
Matthias Bohlen

My customer currently has a co-located Scrum team that has become hyper-productive in only five sprints they did together. They have a team room with lots of noise because some people have a naturally strong voice. I found out that after some time the rest got used to them, sometimes they call "be a little quiet", sometimes just they just have fun.

My own experience is: The more clear the requirement is that you implement, the less important becomes the noise. Noise is mostly a problem when you try to solve a difficult problem alone, in the privacy of your own mind. Having done this for years, I now simply try to avoid this lonely thinking entirely and have a peer for discussion or pair programming, instead. This has proven to be far less error-prone and much more fun!